The Carpatica Commercial Bank board has named Johan Gabriels (in picture) as the new CEO and Chairman of the bank. He will take up active duties as soon as Romania's central bank (BNR) approves his appointment.

“We are pleased that Johan Gabriels has joined our team and we look forward to starting cooperation on development projects in the bank's strategy,” said the chairman of the bank's supervisory board Nicolae Petria on the announcement. He added that despite the challenging economic conditions, the bank “ended 2012 with positive results.”

Johan Gabriels, originally from Belgium, has over 20 years of professional experience and has held positions in financial and general management. He has worked for organizations such as RBS, Arthur Andersen, Mars (Netherlands, Russia, France), PepsiCo (France, Italy, Spain), CapitalOne (US., UK).

Romanian businessman Ilie Carabulea, the owner of Carpatica bank, was jailed in April 2012 for bribery and trading influence and released on parole after five months.

The businessman had resigned from the helm of local lender Banca Carpatica, which he also founded. He is the main shareholder of the bank, with 46 percent of the shares. At the time, it was the biggest corruption case involving a Romanian businessman, and concerns one of the country’s wealthiest: Carabulea, 65, ranked 22nd in the Forbes 2010 ratings for Romania, with an estimated wealth of EUR 200 million. He owns Carpatica bank and the Atlassib group.

Carpatica bank is one of the few remaining Romanian owned banks active on the local market. The bank recorded a profit of some EUR 2.7 million in the first half of 2012, up from the loss registered during the same period of 2011. The banks runs 152 branches across Romania and had assets of some EUR 1.1 billion mid-2012.

editor@romania-insider.com

photo source: rbs.ro